Friday, August 19, 2011

Egypt Antiquities gets new chief

Ahram Online (Nevine El-Aref)

Following two months of the cancelation of the Ministry of State for Antiquities Affairs, Prime Minister Essam Sharaf appointed Mohamed Abdel Fatah the new Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA).

Abdel Fatah was the head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities sector at the SCA. He previously served as head of the Museums sectors and director of Antiquities in Upper Egypt.

I wonder what is happening to Mohamed Abdel Maksoud and whether he will still have a role at the SCA? He seemed to be rather more up front about the problems at the SCA than one has become accustomed to, and I found this apparent openness very welcome.

I'll post anything new as it comes in.




5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I felt positive about Maksoud, too.
He appeared to be someone willing to speak out and to tackle problems but this is apparently not appreciated by everyone.

AliceG said...

Shucks. I thought he was an ok guy. But maybe the problems were just too much for him. And he has the brains to know this. We'll just have to give this one a chance.

Anonymous said...

Am i right in thinking that the new guy Fatah is the bloke who hates Hawass.

Andie said...

Anonymous #2 - That doesn't narrow it down much! I daresay that there was more than one bloke. However, I'm guessing that you are referring to Mohamed Abdel Fatah el-Banna, the conservationist who was given, oh-so-briefly, the position of Minister for Antiquities. He led various campaigns against Hawass, and once, apparently, led a protest against Mark Lehner at Giza, accusing him of hiding or smuggling antiquities. In spite of the very close similarity of the names I don't know if they are the same person. Sorry! I'll post more details as soon as I find out.

Anonymous said...

Yes that is the one i meant Andie. Though Hawass must have made a few enemies in his time i could not help thinking at the time that this mans apparent hatred of Hawass was a bit over the top and i wondered what was really behind it.